Write It Down

We are now half way through the 2nd quarter. Thinking about how the quarter is going for students made me start to reflect on what strategies you are using to stay focused and productive. I believe that the one top strategy that ALL of us can use and that is needed for success is to write down your assignments. I don't care if you write down what you need to do on a post-it note, a to-do list, a dry erase board, or in a planner, but you need to write it down!

Too often students think that they will be able to remember it. I get that... in theory of course we should be able to remember all the things we need to do. But that isn't how it works in reality. Pause for a second and think about your passwords. Chances are you use the same one or two for everything or you have a variation on that password to try. But I'm sure there are times when you have struggled to remember what your password is - I see it with seniors all the time as they are trying to log into their Common App accounts. That is trying to remember essentially one thing and we can't do it.

So here is my reminder, it is time to write down your work. Write down all of the things that you need to do or remember. Use your brain for thinking and processing. Let the paper/ tools around you do the remembering for you. As you focus on finishing the semester strong, write down what you need to do so you can stay on top of it all.

Parent/ Career Information

One of the most common questions we hear from students is how will this topic (whatever subject matter the student is currently struggling with) matter to me in the rest of my life. And the reality is that not every student will have the same career path and different subjects and topics will matter to kids in their future in different ways. But finding ways to help students make a connection between what they are learning in school is important. And parents, your expertise could help students discover future career possibilities!

Many of our WKHS parents have special interests, skills, and professional experiences that align directly with what our students are currently studying or may someday like to pursue as a future career path. Together, we hope to build meaningful connections that provide students with real-world experiences, career exploration opportunities, and insight into future career possibilities. If you would like to contribute to our students' educational experience, we would love to hear from you!

Simply fill out this form and we will use your information to create a database of real working professionals to help engage and inform our students on what their future can hold.

Sports in College

Competing in sports during high school is a huge part of many student's lives. The hours of time that you dedicate to practice, the effort you put forth during games, and the friendships you have made through your involvement all combine together to make this one of the more significant areas of these four years. It can be hard to imagine life without your sport, but the statistics are not encouraging - most high school athletes do not continue on to compete in college at the varsity level. But please don't let that news frustrate you because you can always find a different level of involvement so that athletics can continue to be a part of your life. For example, most colleges offer a variety of ways that students can meet their athletic goals such as through club and intramural options.

Club sports are often competitive and frequently include tryouts. They frequently will compete against other colleges and travel in season. It is less intense of a time commitment than varsity sports at the college level, but still a rigorous athletic commitment.

Intramural sports are more about having fun. Depending on the college, there may be different levels of intensity available for you to choose from on intramurals or they may have just one level for the sport. In addition to different levels of competitiveness of the teams, they may have some options that will be guys only, girls only, or mixed participation so you will find a lot of different intramural options. This provides a great way to meet new people and to even have fun doing sports you have never tried before. I also love that on many campuses there may be fun and creative intramural opportunities such as intertube water polo, quidditch, and broom-ball.

The biggest reminder we have for you is that if you can't imagine your life without sports, please remember that there are always ways to find opportunities to meet those needs in your life. If, for some reason, your college doesn't have the sport you love, maybe you will find a new sport to enjoy. Or you may start to explore what adult leagues may be available that you could join in the community. For example, if you are a hockey player, you might not be able to find club or intramural hockey at your campus, but there are adult hockey leagues you could join.

That leads to the point that you may be thinking ahead to adjusting to life without sports after college... and so, as I just mentioned you can pursue adult leagues in the community, but if sports are really important to you it is worth considering how you can take those skills and aspects that you love and tie them into your career choices. For example, if you are a highly competitive person who loves working on a team toward achieving a common goal, then hopefully you will work to find a job that will allow you to work cooperatively towards common goals in a competitive environment. If you are someone who needs the physical activity to burn off stress or to help you focus, then hopefully you will consider either a job that has physical variety or you will make working out a primary commitment in your daily life.

For now, if you are finding yourself struggling with the idea of your competitive athletic career ending during high school, always feel free to come and talk to us as we know this is a big adjustment.

Missing Application Items

Over the last week we have been receiving so many emails and visits from seniors in a panic about the notifications they have received from colleges about additional requirements needed to complete their applications.

There are things that you have to know and take care of related to your applications - transcripts and test scores are two of the big ones that seem to be causing the most problem at this point. See, the challenge is that colleges know these are components that many students forget so as soon as they download your application, many colleges automatically generate an email to remind you about needing to send them.

So what do you do if you get one of these notification letters?

The first step is to stop and ask yourself - did you request your transcript? That means, did you fill out the online transcript release form for us? If you did, and the application was through Common App you can log onto the website to verify that your transcript was sent and on what day it was submitted and downloaded. If you applied through a college that doesn't use Common App, you can double check with Mrs. McDaniel that your transcript was sent as requested.

For your test scores, it is often harder to recall off the top of your head if you had submitted your scores or not since you signed up for 4 free scores to go to colleges when you registered for the tests. So, we suggest that you log into the ACT and SAT websites and double check that your test scores were sent to every college where you are applying that you wanted your test scores used in your application.

Colleges get really back-logged at peak application times and so it can take them several weeks to get all of the various components of applications matched up and processed and updated on their computer systems. So, if your materials were sent in within the last 2-3 weeks and you can see that your materials were submitted, then you can relax because it just means that their system is backed up. You can continue double checking on the college website to verify that they have everything. If you are reaching the middle of the 3rd week and they still don't show that they have everything, then you can reach out to them to double check the status of your materials. Chances are high that they just haven't made it there yet, but there are times where materials can get lost in the mail or filed in the wrong area. If your transcript needs sent again, we can help you work to take care of that, but first make sure that it is really missing.

For example, OSU sent us an email last week saying that they know that they have students in a panic about missing application items and that it will take them a little bit of time to get everything updated. They specifically asked us not to re-send duplicate copies because it will just back up their process even more. Additionally, they shared an update on how big of a process this is for them... they have received about 57,000 applications this fall and 27,000 of those applications came in between October 27-November 1. That is a TON of data that they have to match up and get updated in their systems. Also, this is a good reminder about why colleges only want the information that they have specifically asked for in their applications. Anything extra is just added data elements that they have to try to connect to your application without a place that it makes a significant difference.

If you have done everything that you were required to do then for now, try to just relax and wait this process out - I promise, this is a common frustration for seniors at this time of year.

Sleep

I had hoped that last weekend and the extra hour of sleep connected to the time change would have meant that we would all feel well rested and ready for the week that followed... but that certainly wasn't how it played out. Each day I repeatedly heard the same sentiments as I typically hear in most weeks with students proclaiming, "I'm so tired!" or "I need a nap!" or "I can barely stay awake!" and the reality is that most of you are sleep deprived.

The pace of our society tends to have people running in a million directions and so sleep is somehow pushed to the back-burner, but teens in particular need more sleep than even adults and yet you are stretched just as thin. I know getting more sleep is definitely easier said than done. You have homework, sports, jobs, clubs, community service, time with family and friends, and hopefully some personal time to spend relaxing or doing the hobbies and activities that are meaningful and rejuvenating to you. But when sleep becomes less of a priority and you become more and more exhausted, research has shown that it has a significant, negative effect on your mental, physical, and emotional well-being.

I know it isn't easy to just say, "yes I need to get more sleep" and then have it happen, but I hope you will consider what small step you could take this week to try to increase how much sleep you can get each night. So, here is my encouragement and challenge to each of you. Consider what 1 small thing you could do in these next few weeks to try to increase the amount of sleep you get each night. Even if you are just getting an additional 30 minutes to an hour of sleep per night, it can make a difference. You need to decide what you think would work for you, but a few ideas you could consider would be to stay off your phone after a certain time, start your homework earlier so you aren't up so late working on assignments, or using your time throughout the day wisely so that you can make the choice to go to bed earlier. If you want to discuss what you are doing to help yourself get more rest or to brainstorm other strategies, please stop by and see your school counselor. The steps you might elect to take will be different for each student and your commitments, but the effort to invest into your own well-being will be worth it!

We hope you had a great weekend with lots of time to rest!

Socratic Society

On Friday morning, 24 students were inducted into the Socratic Society. Staff members are given the opportunity to recognize students for excellence in one or more of the core Socratic values of Scholarship, Integrity, Personal Effort, Compassion, or Lifelong Learning. Students are only eligible to be selected for this honor one time during their high school career.

Congratulations to (in alphabetical order): Amani Alash, John Alley, Lydia Banachowski, Vanessa Bobadilla Illescas, Julia Botros, Hannah Brough, Kimora Budde, Audrey Butterfield, Katie Carbajal, Vivian Cowan, Claire Florea, Spencer Forsee, Shelby Franks, Nathan Gattshall, Allan Hsieh, Avery Lipp, Lily Miller, June Nicoll, Ava Rogers, Addie Ruffing, Kelvin Sam, Anna Sarkozy, Sadie Steele, and Albert Tankovich. Also pictured is Worthington Board of Education member and Kilbourne Alumni, Sheena Costa Flowers, who was the guest speaker during the ceremony.

We are proud of all of you and thankful for the positive impact

PSAT Scores

CollegeBoard has released your PSAT scores today. Your scores are available electronically. This means that you will log into your CollegeBoard account to view and download your scores. (Which is what you will do in the future when you take your SAT as well.) CollegeBoard has a BigFuture mobile app that you can use for accessing your scores or you can use their website.

If you submitted your email account when completing your answer sheet then you should have received an e-mail from CollegeBoard notifying you that your scores are accessible. Even if you didn't receive an e-mail from CollegeBoard you can still access your scores.

Once you have your scores, you may be wondering what they mean.  The score sheets from PSAT provides a wealth of information so it can take some time to digest it all, but if interested, please know that the testing section of the counselor website can help give you additional information, tips and links to better understand your scores.  http://www.wkhscounselors.com/

Don't forget, this is just a practice test so it is giving you an indication of where you might expect to score on your college admissions tests and you can use your results to help guide you in preparing to achieve college readiness.